Nottingham London Road Fire Station

Nottingham London Road Fire Station

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service are building a new fire station on London Road in the south of the City to provide better fire cover and to invest in smaller and more modern premises for the fire service.

Despite being a much loved station, the current Central Fire Station was built for a fire service of a by-gone era and is now over 70 years old and has become too large for the Service’s needs. The new station has been designed for a modern fire service and provides a focus on the emergency response needed from the Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Ian Pritchard, Head of Procurement and Resources at Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service commented: “We have carried out what we call a Fire Cover Review which is a wholesale review of all of the fire risk in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. The Fire Cover Review identifies where the highest risk areas are and where we need to have our station located.

“It was carried out in 2010 and presented in 2011; this review identified that a better place for the station would be on London Road for the access and egress into Nottingham, and the areas that the station will serve.”

Central Fire Station was built in 1940 and was constructed to accommodate the fire servicemen who at that time would sleep on site in a different shift system than is used today. The old station is around 3,300m2 with the new station on London Road being reduced to 1,200m2.

Ian added: “We will lease about 200m2 of the new station to the City Council who are moving their emergency planning team down with us.”

Plans for a new station have been on the cards since 2011, with the old Central Station being sold to the City Council. Once the Service has moved into the new station, the sale will be completed with the City Council.

It is hoped that the station move will be completed before the end of the year. The main contractors on the project are J Tomlinson with CPMG Architects working on the architecture of the new station.

“We started the project some time ago in order to find the right site on London Road, which we then handed over to the contractors in April 2015,” said Ian.

“Completion is due for August 2016 and J Tomlinson are on schedule so we will then have four to six weeks to carry out our fit-out for furniture and to get our ICT systems up and running. Once all this is complete we will move from the old fire station to the new London Road fire station and switch our mobilising system across.

“On the day of the move, the mobilising system will be switched off at Central Fire Station and then switched on at London Road Fire Station so we will move across in a day. It usually takes about six hours, to get everything up and running, but the fire engines don’t go off call, there is a secondary mobilising system so they are always available for emergencies. The fire crews will pick up their personal kit and move across in less than 20 minutes, with the rest of the equipment being moved across by the contractors.”

Once the new station is up and running, Ian believes that the benefits of the move will help with the station’s emergency response operations, as well as providing a better and useable space for the Service.

He added: “The new station will put our operational staff where they are best placed. It is going to be a modern fire station for a modern fire service. We are going from an existing building that is big and expensive to run and moving to something that is purpose built for what we do today.

“The running costs are going to be lower as we have used PV to reduce our mains electrical consumption. We generally build our new stations with greater passive insulation, better than building regulations require to make sure we are saving on heating bills and running cost in the future. We have connected to the district heating system in Nottingham so our heating is coming from the waste incinerator located across the road from the new station.”

CapCon Engineering Ltd

Having been in operation since 2010, CapCon Engineering Ltd specialises in Siphonic and engineered gravity rainwater drainage systems. CapCon’s previous clients include Morgan Sindall, Mace & Mercury Engineering Ltd, Wates Group and multiple Aldi stores across Ireland and the UK.

Premier Construction spoke to Robert Finn, of CapCon Engineering Ltd, to discover some information on the company and its involvements with Central Fire Station. According to Robert:

“Our involvement with this particular project included the installation of Siphonic Rainwater Drainage utilising Valsir Rainplus™ – an Italian manufacturer.

“We feel it very important to be involved given that the fire station is a central service to Nottingham community services. Also the commercial aspect is very important – J. Tomlinson have been a target customer for some time and we hope we can continue to be a central part of their plans going forward.”

When asked what the company prides itself in, Robert responded:

“We pride ourselves in providing the best service possible from concept design through to maintenance if necessary. Our tag is ‘Innovation:Design:Excellence’ and that is what we aim to deliver on each and every project that we are involved with.”